Volume 2008 Article 25

2008

Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and

Louisiana Louisiana

George Avery Unknown

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Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Louisiana Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Louisiana

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Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Louisiana

George Avery

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the seed beads recovered from the Spradley site (41 NA206), a possible Nacogdoche village site located south of Nacogdoches, Texas, and compares the seed bead color pattern to that of other colonial period sites in the region, including Deshazo (41 NA27), Stephens (41 NA202), Pearson (41RA5), Gilbert (41RA13), Roseborough Lake (41BW5), Vinson (41LTl), Womack (41LR1), 41H064, Atlanta State Park (41CS37), Ware Acres (4IGG31), and the shipwreck of La Belle in Texas; and Los Adaes (16NA16) and Colfax Ferry (16NA 15) in Louisiana. The possible meaning of different seed bead color patterns is briefly discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Sorting and inventorying 1116-inch screened material from the Spradley site (41NA206) resulted in the identification of a number of seed beads. Seed beads are glass beads less than 4 mm in diameter which were sewn onto clothing and other personal items. The traditional approach lo seed head analy­sis is to describe the beads according to recognized bead classification systems, most notably those of R. King Harris and lnus Marie Harris (1967), Kenneth E. Kidd and Martha Ann Kidd ( 1970), and Jeffrey P. Brain ( 1979). The results of most bead classification reports are used primarily for chronology and bead type distributions. Few studies have focused on seed bead color patterns-one notable exception is J. Got­tfrcd's (1997) work on seed beads from several late 18th century sites in the northwestern United States. This goal of this article is simply to better understand the seed bead color paLLem of the Spradley site beads by oomparing it to other colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana. The possible social ramifications of seed bead color patterns are briefly discussed.

THE SPRADLEY SITE (41NA206)

The Spradley site (41NA206) is the site of a probable historic period Nacogdoche Indian village habitation roughly three miles south of Nacogdo­ches. The site was recorded by Tom Middlebrook in 1998, and it is very important as it represents one of the more systematically tested historic period Caddo sites in the area (see Middlebrook 2007). Middlebrook worked at the site in 1998, Jim Corbin dire~.:ted fieldwork in 200 I, and Victor Galan di­rected the 2003 and 2005 field seasons. The 2005 field season included the excavation of six 3 x 3 m units. Six I x 1 m units were water screened through 1/16-inch window screen during the 2005 season. My involvement with the Spradley site came in the fall of 2006 with the supervising of sorting and inventory of the 2005 water-screened units, which had begun in the summer of 2006. The sorting and inventory continued in the spring of 2007 with students in the Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) Introduction to Archaeology class. SFA stu­dent workers finished the sorting and inventory by working in the summer and fall of2007. All material from the three SFA field seasons at the Spradley site is curated at the Dr. Jim Corbin Archaeology Lab at SF A. To date, there have been no published reports of the archaeological investigations of the Spradley site, although several presentations have been made at professional meetings (Galan et al. 2004; Bibby 2006; Galan 2006).

A total of 65 seed beads have been recovered from the Spradley site. The colors include white, translucent, various shades of blue, green, and red (Figure 1 ). By the end of spring 2007 it was clear that the seed head sample from Spradley was different from the seed bead collection from Los Adaes (16NA 16 ), a sample I was most familiar with. Black is the predominant color for seed beads in the Los Adacs collcl:lion (Figure 2), and no black seed beads have been recovered from Spradley. This

Journal of Nortlleast Texas Arcllaeolngy, No. 28, 2008

58 Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology

0 I

a white

b

green red

f

5 I I

millimeters

clear

10 I

Figure 1. Seed beads from the Spradley Site (41NA206).

observation led me Lo focus on color and look at other colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana to sec if any patterns emerged.

BEAD COLOR PATTERNS FROM COLONIAL PERIOD SITES IN

TEXAS AND LOUISIANA

Figure 3 shows the location of colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana that have over 100 seed beads in their archaeological assemblages. Table 1 lists these sites, along with the references and bead color proportions. Most of the bead contexts arc burials; the beads from Spradley, Womack, Gilbert, Vinson, and Los Adacs are not from burials. Bead color in this study is Jumped- that is, all the various shades of blue are lumped together as simply "blue." There is no distinction made for compound beads in this study. Even though some beads with an overall white appeamnce actually have a clear exterior layer (e.g., Figure I a), these beads are lumped with white

beads. Also, beads with a red exterior and yellowish core (e.g., Figure lg) arc described as red. The sim­plilled color categories include white, blue, black, red, clear, green, and amber. A pie chart generated in Excel and color-corrected in Adobe Photoshop was made for each site (Figure 4 ).

AL first glance, several patterns are noticeable. Only Los Adaes and Colfax Ferry have predomi­nantly black seed beads. White seed beads occur in almost the same proportions al Spradley and Womack, but Spradley has more red, clear, and green beads. Roseborough Lake and Pearson are remarkably similar- Gilbert and Vinson are fairly similar, differing primarily in the proportions of red and black beads. Atlanta Stale Park is distinct by its almost total dominance of blue, while Ware Acres is distinct for ils total absence of blue. Stephens has substantially higher proportions of green, while Los Adaes has the highest proportion of clear beads.

Jeff Girard was kind enough both to suggest that correspondence analysis would help interpret the variation and also to perform Lhe analysis (Figure 5). The correspondence plot shows that Deshazo, Stephens, Spradley, 41 H064, Roseborough Lake, and Pearson are fairly closely related. Surprisingly

a

9

(

white

1· • .• ~ .•. · .,, .• ·.

0 I

black

5 I I I I

millimeters

clear c

10 I

Figure 2. Seed beads from Los Adaes (16NA I 6).

Avery-Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Louisiana 59

A N

0

Vinson 6

25 so 75 100

Figure 3. Map showing location of colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana.

Table 1. Seed Bead Color Totals. Site O..to of Occupation Source White Blue Black Red Clear GrMn Amber Total ~adley (41NA206) 4C1_ 19 0 1 4 1 0

11~ Los Adaes 16NA 16 1721-1773 Avery 2004 - r--1s1t="21a 512 38 144 4 2 VIOOlad< (41LR1) 1700-1730 - Hams et 81 1965 -

1--.7~~:14 5 8 5 0 0 1192 Golbert (41RA13) 1740-176r--- Jelks 1967 - 1,209 935 393 388 69 e3 22 ~79 RosellorOUiji\Laka (41BW5 1720-1780 fl.f.roor et a1 1973 f----f267 -;ii 8 37 125 6 11 8 2632 VInson 41 L T1 1761)..1790 - 'Hams et 81 1993

- r--, ,054 632 2~~1-~2.L 48 96 82 2661 Pearson 41 RA 1 177&-1830" Dulfoetd and Jelks 1961 782 805 25 85 5 7 8 1717 41H064 tate 1600s, early 1700s Perttula 2004 1,172 3,698 0 0 0 5214 DeShazo 41NA2'7) -

11 ~3331 1686-1714 Creel1982 339 2,675 33 32~ 1 0 0 0~

Hams el at 1980 4 li03 0 a~ 0 610 I Atlanta Stale Pall< (41CS37) _pfe17oo 2! St&E!:!ns ( 41 NA202) - 1714-1830 Turner pen comm 2008- 2,067 3,267 2021 503 73 91~1 0 7022

3671 1700s Joneo 1968 711 0 0 1986 VI/are Acres ! 41 GG31) I--n 906__ 2. ~ax Ferry (16NA 15) 1764-1820 Webb and Gregory 1965-

24~::· 32;:: 23.000 3.427 223 445 31,186 .

La Belle 1686 Per11ule pers comm 2006

enough, Womack and Atlanta State Park arc fairly close, and all others are not as closely grouped.

The correspondence plot (see Figure 5) also shows the seed bead color pattern from the wreck of La Belle. Figure 6 shows the seed bead color pattern pie chart for Lo. Belle. The comparison of La Belle color patterns to that of the other sites is

201 444 402 7 12 848 147 78C647

most revealing. There are roughly equal amounts of white, hlue, and black beads, with very small pro­portions of green, yellow, and red. The only site that has roughly equal proportions of three bead color is Ware Acres, and this site has 36% red seed beads-a color that comprises only 0.05% of the collection of beads recovered from La Belle (see Table 1). If the

60 Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology

A N

25 50 75 100 0

Figur~ 4. Se~d bead color pattern pie charts for colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana.

head assemblage from La Belle represents the head color proportions available in the late 17th century, then it is clear that late 17th sites in the study sample, including 41 H064, Deshaw, and Atlanta State Park, Jo not reflect the head color proportions from La Belle. Blue is disproportionately represented in all three, and red is disproportionately represented at Deshazo and 41 H064. Therefore, it is clear that the beads are being used in proportions that arc being determined by the individual bead workers, and not by the availability.

DISCUSSION

So what might this all mean? Dillerences in head color preference among American Indian groups in North Ameril.:a have been noted, and for

some groups-for example, the Plains Indians­these differences are attributed to ethnic differences (see Stine et al. 1996:57). It is likely that at least one, if not more, of the sites in this study are associated with different tribal groups. Colfax Ferry is a site occupied by Pascagoula and Diloxi Indians, and as both the pie chans and correspondence analysis indicate, Colfax Ferry is very different from most of the other sites in this study. Colfax Ferry is most closely related to the seed bead color pattern for Los Adaes (see Figures 4-5). Womack, Gilbert, Pearson, and Vinson are described as "Nortefio" sites in their respective reports, allhough Tim Perttula (personal communication. 2007) suggests all but Vinson are Caddo sites. The remaining sites-Atlanta State Park, Roseborough Lake, Ware Acres, 41 H064. De­shazo, Stephens, and Spradley---<:an all be described as Caddo sites. Ware Acres is considered a Caddo

Avery- Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Sites in Texas and Louisiana 61

Correspondence Plot 4.-----~~------~~------~~----~

sites, and the less remarkable, but still similar seed bead color patterns for the Gilbert and Vinson sites. It is pos­sible that these four sites represent two groups being in two different places at different times, instead of four groups being in four different places. That is, given the earlier dates for Rosebor­ough Lake and Gilbert, and later dates for Pearson and Vinson, it is possible that one group left the Gilbert site area prior to 1770 and went to the Vinson site area, and the other group left the Roseborough Lake area prior to 1780 and went to the Pearson site area. However, unpublished observations of gun parts and a religious medal­lion from Pearson suggest an earlier occupation for the Pearson site (Jay C. Blaine, personal communication 2008). Still, the potential in the future to use seed bead color patterns to track possible movement of individuals or groups through time is an intriguing possibility.

2._

-N ...._.. E Qf-

o Ware cres

0

-

Colfax Ferry0

Los Adaes 0

La 6811'b Womack ~AtlantaSP

Gilbert ~O(J Vinson ° 1 Pe o / arson

/ / Roseborough Lake

Deshazo 41H~ Stephens Spradley

-

-

-4~----~~------~~----~~----~ -4 -2 0 2 4

Dim(1)

Figure 5. Correspondence analysis for seed bead color patterns from colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana.

site, but the bead color pattern is very different from any other site in the study.

Clearly, any step in associating bead color pat­tern with sociaVpolitical groupings, be they family groups or tribes, should be taken with caution. But, throwing caution to the wind for the moment, it is tempting to hazard an interpretation of the re­markable similarities between the seed head color patterns for the Roseborough Lake and Pearson

o Whlte

• Blue

• Eiack

• Red a ear

g Green

o Amber

Figure 6. Seed bead color pattern pie chan for La Belle.

CONCLUSIONS

The intention of this article is in no way to diminish the importance of meticulous description of glass seed beads. This will always be a critical part of head analysis. The goal here was simply to investigate the variation in seed bead color patterns in colonial period sites. This is not a revolutionary idea. Bob Turner, the premier bead analyst in East Texas, mentioned to me that he had thought about it years ago. Seed beads were sewn onto clothing and other personal articles in patterns with varying colors being used. Sint:e different seed bead color patterns have been associated with different social/ political groupings, it is not too much of a leap to suggest that seed bead color patterns from art:haeo­logical sites might have potential for providing so­ciaVpolitical information about the people who wore the beads. Future research might include counting the various colors of seed beads on historic Caddo examples of head work, determining the seed bead color patterns, and comparing this to the seed bead color pattems found on colonial period sites in Texas and Louisiana.

62 Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks go to the following SFA students for their efforts in the daunting task of sorting, counting, and weighing the 2005 water-screened samples from the Spradley site: Sara Baker, Emily Borth, Dynna Bullock, Zacheryadam Collins, Jessica Cooley, Carlos Cooper, Heather Cosby, Michael Della Cake, Preston Goodell, Philip Johnson, Joni Luten, Me­gan Markworth, Katie Mathcnia, Omar Marroquin, Byran McDonald, Will Morgan, Corey Reynolds, Michele Roberts, Christina Steele, and David Sims. Karol Chandlcr-Ezel and Tom Middlehrook supervised the summer 2006 student workers­Tom developed the sorting template that was used throughout the project in the Jab. Bob Turner and Tim Pcrttula provided unpublished information on head color information from the Stephens site and La Belle. Tim also provided bead color information for the Ware Acres site. Jeff Girard performed the correspondence analysis. Tommy Hailey loaned us the sorting trays from the Cultural Resource Office at Northwestern State University. Special thanks go to Jerry Williams for supporting the activities of the Dr. Jim Corbin Archaeology Lab at SFA.

REFERENCES CITED

Avery, G. 2004 Annual Report of the Los Adaes Station Archaeology

Program. Manuscript on file at the Louisiana Divi­sion of Archaeology, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Bibby, S. 2006 Anifact Distribution at the Spradley Site (41NA206).

Presentation given at the 4H1h Caddo Conference, Nacogdoches, Texas.

Brain, J. P. 1979 Tunica Treasure. Papers of the Peabody Museum of

Archaeology and Ethnology, Volume 71. Published jointly by The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and The Peabody Museum of Salem, Salem, Massachusetts.

Creel, D . G. 1982 Artifacts of Non-Native Manufacture. In The De­

shazo Site, Nacogdoches County, Texas, Volume I, edited by D. A. Story, pp. 113-130. Texas Antiquities Permit Series, No.7. Texas Antiquities Committee, Austin.

Duffield, L. F. and E. B. Jelks 1961 The Pearson Site. A Historic Indian Site at Iron

Bridge Reservoir, Rains County, Texas. Anthropol­ogy Series, No. 4. Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas, Austin.

Galan, Y. 2006 Artifact Analysis for the Spradley Site (41 NA206):

A Protohistoric Caddo Site. Presentation given at the meeting of the East Texas Caddo Research Group, December 2-3, 2006. Stephen F. Austin State Uni­versity, Nacogdoches.

Galan, Y., S. Wood. C. Meyer, E. Boedy, and B. Chadwick 2004 Anifact Analysis for the Spradley site (41 NA206).

Presentation given at the annual meeting of the Texas Archeological Society.

Gottfred, J. 1997 Seed Beads in the Nonhwest. Northwest Journal

4:2-9. http://www.northwestjournal.ca/IY2.htm

Harris, R. K. and I. M. Harris 1967 Trade Beads, Projectile Points, and Knives. In A

Pilot Study of Wichita Indian Archeology and t:th­nohistory, assembled by R. E. Bell, E. B. Jelks, and W. W. Newcomh, pp. 129-158. Final Report to The National Science Foundation for Grant GS-964 .

Harris, R. K., I. M. Harris. J. c_ Blaine, and J. Blaine 1965 A Preliminary Archeological and Documentary

Study of the Womack Site, Lamar County, Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 36:287-363.

Harris, R. K .. I. M. Harris, and M.P. Miroir 1980 The Atlanta State Park Site in Nonheastern Texas.

Louisiana Archaeology 6:231-239.

Harris, I. M., R. K. Harris, and J. E. Smith II 1993 Glass Trade Beads and Native Made Beads, The Yin­

son Site (41LT1). Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 64:142-14 7.

Jelks, E. B. (editor) 1967 The Gilbert Site. A Nonefio Focus Site in North­

eastern Texas. Bulletin of the Te.xas Archeological Society 37: 1-248.

Jones, B. C. 1968 The Kinsloe Focus: A Study of Seven Historic Cad­

doan Sites in Northeast Texas. Master's thesis, De· partment of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman.

Kidd, K. E. and M. A. Kidd 1970 A Classification System for Glass Beads for the Use

of Field Archaeologists. Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History-

Avery-Seed Bead Color Patterns from Colonial Period Siles in Texas and Louisiana 63

No. 1, pp. 45-S9. National Historic Sites Service, National and Historic Parks Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ot­tawa.

Middlebrook. T. 2007 Survey of Historic Caddo Sites in Nawgdoches

County. Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology 26:95-115.

Miroir. M.P., R. K. Harris, J. C. Blaine, and J. McVay 1973 Benard de Ia Harpe and the Nassonite Post. Rulletin

of the Texas Archeological Society 44:113-167.

Pcrttula. T. K. 2004 41 H064/41 H065, Late J71h to Early I H1h Century

Caddo Sites on San Pedro Creek in Houston County, Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 75:85-103.

Stine, L. F., M. A. Cabak, and M. D. Groover 1996 Blue Beads as African-American Cultural Symhols.

Hiswrical Archneology 30(3):49-75.

Webb. C. H. and H. F. Gregory 1965 European Trade Beads from Six Sites in Natchi­

toches Parish, Louisiana. The Florida Anthropologist 18(3 ): I 5-44.

Figure1

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Figure 5

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Figure 6

oWhire

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o Green

o Amber